Beruka
Beruka (ベルカ, Belka in the Japanese version) is a playable character in Fire Emblem Fates and an ally on the Conquest and Revelation Routes. She is voiced by Masumi Tazawa in the Japanese version and by Stephanie Sheh in the English version. Profile Beruka is a skilled assassin orphaned in the slums of Nohr at a young age. From the little memories she had of her parents, Beruka tells Odin in their supports that she received very little love from them and was thrown onto the streets, being forced to kill for survival before she reached the age of 10. In her support with Niles, Beruka states that her mother is deceased. She was adopted by a notable Nohrian assassin and was taught the art of assassination, though she reveals in her support with Oboro that she never received any love from him. Eventually, she became a notable assassin in her own right. One day, she was contracted to kill her adoptive father, a task she carried out with no remorse, stating that any personal feelings she may have can never make her falter in her mission. One day, she received a new contract to kill the eldest Nohrian princess, Camilla. During her attempted assassination, Camilla found her and managed to convince her to give up her mission by hiring her as a retainer instead. Since then, she has been steadfastly loyal to Camilla. When Camilla asked if Beruka would ever try to kill her again, she states that she would only if it came from someone more trustworthy than Camilla herself, a feat that no other person has yet to accomplish. In turn, Beruka wears the armour that Camilla once used herself, according to her support with Charlotte, hence why she plays the role of a Wyvern Rider. Birthright Beruka and Selena accompany Camilla as she attacks the Hoshidan army at Cheve. Beruka is defeated alongside her liege and is forced to retreat. As the Avatar later begins their seige of Castle Krakenburg, Camilla once again goes off to intercept them in the Underground Passage with the Beruka and Selena in tow. Selena and Beruka are eventually defeated by the Hoshidan army. At their mercy, the Avatar chooses to spare their lives as they merely wish to confront King Garon. With no means to defeat them, Selena, Beruka, and Camilla let them pass. Conquest After the Hoshidan army launches its first attack against Nohr at Port Dia, Beruka follows Camilla and Selena to the harbor to assist the Avatar in their defense. Although she is hurt that they do not seem to recall her, calling them heartless very bluntly, she nevertheless pledges her services to them. Revelation Beruka and Selena follow Camilla and Flora to intercept the Avatar and their arm At Sea after King Garon ordered Camilla to kill them. After a long fought battle, Camilla, Beruka, and Selena are defeated. With Camilla's life in the Avatar's hands, the Avatar decides to spare her and request that she join their army. Camilla accepts the offer and Beruka and Selena join them as well. Personality Beruka, raised as an assassin committed to executing her cold-blooded duties with no emotion, generally comes off as very cold, stoic, unfeeling and distant. As a result of her upbringing, she is thus chronically incapable of expressing her emotions and understanding the intentions of others, a fact that is expounded upon throughout the support conversations that she shares with various characters. Beruka's supports with the Avatar, for one, see her coldly responding to their attempts to befriend her with suspicion and distrust. Her S support with Leo also advances this fact, where she, in response to his marriage proposal, expresses confusion over the warm feelings of love that she finds herself harbouring for him. Due to being fully devoted to her duties as a master assassin, Beruka does not seem to devote any energy towards activities outside of her royal duties. Unable to grasp the concept of engaging in hobbies for the sake of pleasure, she is typically known to wait idly when not actively performing her duties. Her supports with Jakob show that due to being raised in the slums, the only thing she learned throughout her life was killing people. It is also shown that she prefers working alone and does not like working with others, as another support with her reveals that as a result of being with the army, she is afraid that she cannot do her task properly. Despite the emotionless figure that she cuts, Beruka has been portrayed as being uncomfortable with the fact that she is immune to experiencing the emotions that are typical of the human condition. She is known to express envy towards others for their ability to freely experience emotions, incapable of comprehending why she is unable to emulate their example. Beruka's supports with Odin best illustrates this fact, as she directly interrupts his flowery harangue with a request for him to conjure a spell to help recall the feelings that she is unable to experience to her, attributing this to a desire to be able to being able to connect with the other members of the army. She is the most immune to poison. Her birthday is February 26. In-Game Base Stats Conquest Chapter 10 - Unhappy Reunion/Revelation Chapter 12 - Frozen Sea Axe - D* |Item=Iron Axe }} *+50% in Conquest As an Enemy Birthright Chapter 13 - Another Hope |-|Normal= Axe - B |Item=Steel Axe }} |-|Hard= Axe - B |Item=Steel Axe }} |-|Lunatic= Axe - B |Item=Steel Axe }} Birthright Chapter 23 - Camilla |-|Normal= Lance - E Axe - A |Item=Brave Axe Talisman (Dropped) }} |-|Hard= Lance - C Axe - A |Item=Brave Axe Talisman (Dropped) }} |-|Lunatic= Lance - B Axe - A |Item=Brave Axe Talisman (Dropped) }} *In Guard Stance with Selena, stats unconfirmed Revelation Chapter 12 - Frozen Sea |-|Normal= Axe - D |Item=Iron Axe }} |-|Hard= Axe - C |Item=Iron Axe }} |-|Lunatic= Axe - B |Item=Iron Axe }} Growth Rates Class: |55% |45% |15% |65% |40% |50% |60% |25% |} |55% |45% |10% |70% |40% |50% |60% |25% |} |45% |45% |25% |65% |35% |45% |50% |40% |} Max Stat Modifiers | -1 | 0 | +2 | -2 | 0 | +2 | -1 |} Supports Romantic Supports *The Avatar (Male) *Xander *Leo *Benny *Arthur *Niles *Odin *Laslow *Keaton *Jakob *Kaze *Silas *Saizo (Revelation only) *Azama (Revelation only) Other Supports *The Avatar (Female) *Camilla *Selena *Charlotte *Oboro (Revelation only) *Beruka's child Class Sets Standard Sets |} Friendship Sets |-|Conquest/Revelation= |} |-|Revelation= |} Partner Sets |-|All Routes= |} |-|Conquest/Revelation= |} |-|Revelation= |} Special Classes |} Overall Base Class Beruka always comes in tow with Camilla so choosing her over Camilla comes over a preference of Beruka's focus on Skill and Defense with a drop in speed and some in strength compared to Camilla's relatively even spread of stat boosts with minor drops in Magic. Her other niche is that she starts in her base class rather than a pre-promoted unit, giving her more levels to acquire desired stat growths before hitting the promoted level cap, though Camilla has stronger, consistent growths in all stats, so the difference can be very small in the end. Beruka's personal skill, Opportunist, increases her damage dealt by four whenever the enemy that she is attacking cannot counterattack. Beruka can use this to excel when exploiting weapon ranges, so having a weapon for both close range and ranged combat such as a Hand Axe gives her the benefit of exploiting this skill as much as possible. Beruka starts out in the Wyvern Rider class and always starts off with Strength +2, giving her early strength boosts but falls off later in exchange for more practical combat skills. Training her one level up to 10 grants her Lunge a situation skill for swarming and surrounding enemy units. It has applications for interesting offensive tactics, though it is very situational. As an Wyvern rider, she needs to be cautious of Bow and Yumi users as they deal lethal damage and they are plentiful in the Conquest route late game especially. There is also the dangers of Wyrmslayers, though they are not nearly as common. Beruka's two promotion options are the Wyvern Lord and Malig Knight. The Wyvern Lord class plays to Beruka's strengths as a physical tank as well as giving her access to Lances to use against Sword users, though she will have difficulties dealing much damage without grinding up weapon ranks, which can be difficult on Conquest. Rally Defense is a highly useful rally on Conquest, as there are many enemies that can cut into a character's physical defense through Shurikens or Seal Defense. Swordbreaker is useful for Beruka, as it gives her extra insurance against enemy Swordmasters and other Sword-wielding units. Beruka does not have a high enough magic growth rate to utilize the ability to use Tomes in the Malig Knight, though the skills from the class line can be acquired to give Beruka additional offense. Savage Blow synergizes well with Opportunist, as Beruka can stack them to wear down a more durable opponent, like an enemy Oni Cheftain or General. Trample adds more damaged against non-mounted units; given that there are numerous non-mounted units in both Conquest and Revelation, Beruka can certainly make use of 5 additional damage to an opponent. Secondary Class Beruka's secondary class is the Fighter class, which is a fantastic reclassing option for her, though she would be a third fighter unit. Compared to Charlotte, she is much more durable, but not nearly as strong or fast as she is, so she is generally less riskier to use and has better skills from her base class set compared to Charlotte's secondary. If not planning on keeping her in this class, there are skills to acquire that benefits her base class greatly. HP +5 is a good skill for both short term and long term use. Even if she hits her HP cap, 5 additional points is a nearly 9 percent HP increase. Gamble is, as it suggests, a gamble to use if willing to exchange 10 Hit Rate points for 10 Critical Hit points. The Fighter's promotions focuses on different things, Berserker focuses on an all-out attack style to quickly eliminate enemies in one turn contrasting to dueling and exchanging blows in the Hero class. Berserker provides Rally Strength to assist allies if Beruka herself cannot engage and is the second Rally Skill in her base class. She also gains Axefaire, which increases her Damage output by 5 whenever using an Axe, a weapon available in all of her class sets. Hero provides Sol, her only attacking skill and regeneration skill in her class sets. Axebreaker has applications for helping her avoid Axe and Club wielders, especially when using Lances in her Wyvern Lord class. Quotes Refer to Beruka/Quotes Possible Endings Beruka - Quiet Assassin (殺し屋 Koroshiya lit. Professional Killer) : After the war, Beruka opened up more and was even known to smile sometimes. She spent the rest of her life at Camilla's side, rejecting offers for assassination contracts and not discussing her hobbies. ; Beruka and Arthur : Arthur returned to his true calling, justice. Scholars believe his luck improved slightly after the war. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict. ; Beruka and Jakob : Jakob served as a butler for the rest of his life, but his true love was reserved for his wife alone. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict. ; Beruka and Kaze : While no official records of Kaze survive, he appears in many rumors and tales of heroic exploits. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict. ; Beruka and Leo : Leo sacrificed much for Nohr, leading the effort to spread King Xander's radical new policies. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict. ; Beruka and Niles : Niles continued to take care of Lord Leo's dirty work while helping reform Nohr's criminal population. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict. ; Beruka and Saizo : Saizo disappeared from official records after the war, but no doubt he served the royal family forever. Beruka was torn about leaving Camilla but enjoyed having enough emotions for them to conflict. Non-Canon Appearances Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher) Beruka is illustrated in the trading card game Fire Emblem Cipher with the following cards: * * * Etymology Beruka is a derivative of the name Beronica (the origin of the name Veronica), a name of Old Greek origin from φέρειν (phérein) "to bring", and νίκη, níkê, "victory", meaning "bearer of victory" or more literally "she who brings victory", possibly alluding to the fact that she completes most if not all her assignments/jobs. Trivia *Beruka shares her English voice actress, Stephanie Sheh, with Rhajat and Sophie, as well as Tharja and Kjelle from Awakening. *Beruka was voted the 12th most popular female on Nintendo's official Fates character poll. Gallery Camilla_Berkua_Sketch.png|Artwork of Beruka and Camillia from Yusuke Kozaki's Twitter account. Cipher SketchBeruka.jpg|Artwork of Beruka made by Saori Toyota. Cipher Beruka Toyota1.jpg|Artwork of Beruka as a Wyvern Rider by Saori Toyota. Cipher Beruka Toyota2.jpg|Artwork of Beruka as a Wyvern Lord by Saori Toyota. BerukaCipherArt.jpg|Artwork of Beruka by Saori Toyota as a Malig Knight in Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher). BerukaCipher.jpg|Artwork of Beruka by Saori Toyota in Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher). Cipher Belka 2.jpg|Beruka, as she appears in Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher) as a Wyvern Rider. Cipher Belka.jpg|Beruka, as she appears in Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher) as a Wyvern Lord. B06-062R.png|Beruka as a Malig Knight in Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher). File:B06-063N.png Belka confession.jpg|Beruka's confession scene. Belka portrait.png|Beruka's portrait. Belkaavatar.png|Beruka's official Twitter icon. FEF Belka My Room Model.png|Beruka's Private Quarters model. FE14 Wyvern Rider (Beruka).jpg|Beruka's battle model as a Wyvern Rider. Beruka_UnmountedWyvernRider_FE14.jpg|Beruka's battle model as an unmounted Wyvern Rider. Category:Playable characters Category:Fire Emblem Fates characters Category:Fire Emblem 0 (Cipher) Characters